St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1887-12-15
MISCELLANY.
MISS CRUTCHETTS PLAN.


ums in Mabel Verinder's window, an(
then turned every lingering drop to
diamonds. There had been yet anoth
or lingering shower at the same time
the tears that welled suddenly up from
Mabel's heart and left a sad brilliancy
in her eyes.
Selma is right. l am no helpmate al
than drag upon him. And, oh, Tve
tried so hard to help him."
"Ohp said old Miss Crutchet-
"what And why should Chaley be
helped He hasn't lost the use of his
limbs or anything, has he Z"
NO." unwillingly admitted Mabel
She was just in that mood i'm which a
woman would rather make a martyr Of
herself than not. ''But his salary is 81
small And he has to work so hard y
"Any harder than other people r.
questioned Miss Crutchett. "There's
conductor lives on our third fiat.
He has to be up at four o'clock every
morning, and his last trip ends at TO-
at night! And Philip Jones is foreman
of daily paper, and never goes to
bed till daylight"
"Oh, of course, l don't mean that,
said Mabel. "But | mean that lie has
to work pretty steadily for ridiculous
salary"
"La, my DEAR" said Miss Crutchett,
Salaries of any sort are to be respect
ed nowadays. If Charley's place
was vacant you would find score of
men striving to get it. It's the natur-
al consequence of Over-pOpulatiOn in
our great cities"
eyes," sighed Mabel, "but Horace
FOntaine's wife earns quite little
sum by doing crayon pictures. And
Lucy WeldOn's novel sold for six hun
dred dollars. And Nellie Traxon en-
broiders tapestry for The Young
Woman's Bureau and Mrs. COpley
gets six or seven dollars a week by law
copying for her brothers. firm. Why
couldn't do some such thing 2"
"DOes Charley want you to 2" asked
Miss Crutchett, the lenses of her spec
tacles seeming to shine like inquiring
eyes upon Mrs. Verinder.
"NO; but his Aunt Selma has
been saying such hOrrid meddlesome
things about my being a silly child,
and Charley having married too early,
and"
"Humph r' said Miss Crutchett.
"The troubles of One-half the world
come from what the other half says"
eyes, l know" said Mabel, queru-
lously "but it would be SO nice if |
could earn something myself. l
wouldn't care how little it was.
painted lovely landscape on Old-gOld
satin last week, and sent it to the Fine
Art Exchange, but there was no sale
for it ; and | crOcheted a beautiful car
riage afghan, and it hung in Bates
window "a month, and got all faded
with sunshine and sOiled with dust,
and no one so much rs asked the price
of it. If | only had some marketable
talentw
"My dear" good Miss Crutchett
had begun but here she suddenly
checked herself, and added: "DOn't |
smell something burning in the kitch-
en?"
sob, dare say" said Mabel, spirit
lessly. "Christine is always scOrcbing
something or other. Our apple-cOm-
pote was ruined for dinner yesterday,
and the chicken pot-die couldn't be
eaten on Sunday. She destroyed a
whole baking of bread on Friday,
and"
But Mrs. Verinder broke short off
in the middle of her speech and fed
to the kitchen, where a saucepan of
lobster was bubbling over on the stove
and Christine, the jaunty Swedish
hOuse-maid, was out in the area,
watching the antics of monkey who
was chained to hand-Organ.
Tt's too bad I" cried Mabel, excit-
edly. "It's all burned to the bottom
of the pan! And Charley is so fond
of lobster bisque, too! Oh, L could
cry! That Christine isn't worth her
salt !"
"Lttle foxes spoil the grapes =" alb
stractedly quoted Miss Crutchett.
"What on earth are you talking
about 2" said Mabel, staring at the old
lady.
"NOthing," said Miss Crutchett
"This bisque is spoiled ; so is the pan
it was stewing in"
"Dear dear ~ cried Mabel "and it
is too late to make another, and l
haven't thing for dinner in the housed
We must send to Valigbetti's for a
roast chicken and some apricot tarts-
that's ALL"
"TO the French restaurant on Vestry
place ?"
"Oh, yes !" said Mabel, indifferently.
eve often do that"
"Humph" said Miss Crutchett.
''Well, I'll go out and call that Swedish
damsel of yours. What wages do You
pay her, by the way 2"
Fourteen dollars a month";" said
Mabel, with troubled cOuntenance.
''Just three times what she is worth %
"Humph J" again remarked Miss
Crutclett.
"She's so careless p said Mabel,
"She has Clipped all the
beautiful china that his Aunt Selma |
gave me for wedding present, and |
she broke that exquisite statuette of
DIANA that stood on the gilt tripod |
between the windows, and she has let |
the moths get into the parlOr carpet,
out of sheer neglect. Oh, she is such
a trial"
81 don't see why you keep such a
GIRL" observed Miss Crutchett.
"They're all alike" said Mabel. ga
shiftless set! If | sent her
away, should in all probability get
worse one in her place"
"Humph !" said Miss Crutchett.
The next day the good old lady
came cheerfully up into Mrs. Verinder's
Hat once more.
"Well, my DEAR" said she, "I've dis
covered a way for you to help your
husband"
Mabel flung down the book over
which she had been dreaming and her
ioce looked radiant.
"Dear Miss Crutchett," said she, "I
shall always, always he grateful to
ron Ia If literary lahor 2o
"N-nO," said Miss Crutchett, mot
exactly literary labor"
''Is it painting 2" urged Mabel.